Friday, February 6, 2015

Your salary versus soccer players', and yes it's grim reading

I like watching soccer, male or female it's a great game. It's not one of my favourite sports but how could you knock the skill you see in the highest levels? You have to admit though, those boys earn some money.

The BBC have created this great infographic which really knocks that message home. Users type in salary in their home currency, and the programme works out how long it would take you to earn a soccer-player's income.

We're talking hundreds of years when compared to the top players. Conversely the top flight players would earn the equivalent of my weekly wage in less than an hour. I expected something like that but it's the graph further down the page showing the ENORMOUS gap between male and female players which is truly depressing:

Yaya Toure earns 221 times more than England women's captain Steph Houghton, who is reportedly on £50,000 a year.

Cristiano Ronaldo earns 83 times more than Alex Morgan, one of the
highest-paid female footballers in the US, who is reportedly on $282,000
a year.

Angel Di Maria earns 290 times more than England women's captain Steph Houghton, who is reportedly on £50,000 a year.

Arjen Robben earns 34 times more than Alex Morgan, one of the highest-paid female footballers in the US, who is reportedly on $282,000 a year.